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Cathy Woods appears in Washoe District court in Reno. Andy Barron/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP.

Woman who wrongfully spent 35 years in prison for murder to sue

Woods was diagnosed as schizophrenic and was “floridly psychotic and hearing voices” at the time she gave her alleged confession.

A WOMAN WHO spent 35 years in prison for a 1976 Reno, Nevada killing before being exonerated by DNA evidence has sued officials in Nevada and Louisiana, alleging civil rights violations and malicious prosecution.

Lawyers for Cathy Woods, 66, say she was deprived of almost her entire adult life based on a confession authorities got while questioning her without a lawyer at a psychiatric hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana.

“She was an extremely vulnerable person at that time and today,” Elizabeth Wang, one of Woods’ lawyers, said.

“Anyone who sees her would see what 35 years in prison did to her.”

Woods, who also used the name Anita Carter, was freed in September 2014 and cleared last year in the stabbing death of 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell near the University of Nevada, Reno.

A National Registry of Exonerations’ database lists Woods as the longest-ever wrongfully incarcerated woman in US history.

Officials say DNA linked an Oregon prisoner, Rodney Halbower, to the stabbing, which drew intense media attention during the three years it went unsolved.

Halbower also is suspected in several Northern California deaths in early 1976, which were dubbed the Gypsy Hill killings. Now 68, he faces a court hearing on Friday in San Mateo County, California, to determine if he should stand trial in the slayings of two teenage girls from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Authorities say Halbower’s DNA on a Marlboro cigarette puts him at the scene of Mitchell’s slaying.

Police and prosecutors in Nevada thought they had their break in the case when Shreveport police reported that Woods told a counselor in a psychiatric hospital in early 1979 that she recalled something about a woman being stabbed in Reno, according to Woods’ lawsuit.

Moving

Woods had moved to Shreveport about a year after Mitchell’s killing, and she had been committed to the hospital by her mother.

Her lawyers say Woods was diagnosed as schizophrenic and was “floridly psychotic and hearing voices” at the time she gave her alleged confession.

Woods only talked about “vague information about the crime that had been publicly reported,” the lawsuit said, and she was denied a lawyer by detectives who “promised that things would go ‘quicker’ and easier if she did not have an attorney.”

Woods was convicted in Nevada based largely on the confession and sentenced in 1980 to life in prison without parole. She won a new trial on an appeal to the state Supreme Court but was convicted again in 1985.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in US District Court in Reno, names the city of Reno, two former Reno officers, former Washoe County District Attorney Cal Dunlap, two former Shreveport officers and a doctor who treated Woods at the Louisiana State University Medical Center.

The lawsuit alleges malicious prosecution, multiple violations of Woods’ constitutional rights to due process, and civil conspiracy. It seeks unspecified damages.

It accuses the doctor, Douglas Matthew Burks, of doing nothing to stop Woods’ interrogation.

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26 Comments
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    Mute Martin Ryan
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 9:41 PM

    No amount of money is going to give this women her life back, her accusers should now be sent to jail.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:52 PM

    Sounds like an ongoing legal case to me. How come we’re allowed comment on this but not Pat Hickey or John Delaney?

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 11:22 PM

    Not a legal expert but I’d imagine that this case is unlikely to end up in the Irish legal system but Pat Hickey may very end up in an Irish court.
    As well if his innocent he could sue for defamation

    53
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    Mute Alan M
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    Aug 24th 2016, 12:02 AM

    Not a legal expert either but I think comments are not allowed when agendas are at play. Just a guess.

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    Mute Brent Weaver
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:06 PM

    She’d want to be careful suing the cops. The last guy ended up back in prison.

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    Mute jenni
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:29 PM

    so did she the first time

    52
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    Mute Barry Davidson
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:04 PM

    We complain about ‘loopholes’ and high standards of evidence meaning criminals getting off (I count myself among the complainers) but when see things like this you remember that it’s better for 10 guilty to go free than 1 innocent goes to jail.

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    Mute cholly appleseed
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 11:10 PM

    That’s not very accurate. The actual figure is 0.027 percent in the states. I’d rather complain and change the loop holes.tge figure of false prosecutions is so small even in America

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 11:59 PM

    This is going to seem very argumentative and biased but I’m guessing the 0.027 are only the ones that can get a lawyer to believe them and work for free. In the states you have the right to an attorney for your trial but I think after the first appeal you no longer get one provided for you

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:34 PM

    Poor woman. It seems incredible that she could be accused of a murder and not have an attorney. Is that not unconstitutional in America?

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    Mute t
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    Aug 24th 2016, 8:12 AM

    In America the poor have no rights whether they are black or white. The people of Fishtown have no rights where as the people that attend Yale, Havard ect have everything and can get away with almost any crime because they can afford to hire a top legal team that will have attended the same university as the Judge. This is the culture Junker and co are trying to import into Europe

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    Mute sparky
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 9:42 PM

    Interesting emails exchanged. Code word “our secret”

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    Mute Thomas Murphy
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 9:39 PM

    Brooks was here!

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    Mute legoman❗
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 9:53 PM

    So was red …

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    Mute Decky Morgan
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 11:07 PM

    Yeoooo!! Looks like we have season 2 of making a murderer underway

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    Mute Mr Scientist
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    Aug 24th 2016, 6:20 AM

    One of my worst fears in life

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    Mute The Red Devil
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    Aug 24th 2016, 1:40 AM

    Somebody phone Johnny Corcoran

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    Mute hugh sure
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:31 PM

    Hope she gets a large compensation pay out, she has got lots of different personalities to share it with

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    Mute nf
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    Aug 24th 2016, 12:16 AM

    Very ignorant comment

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    Mute James Joseph Superior Power
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    Aug 24th 2016, 1:45 AM

    Ignorant in more ways than one. Having Schizophrenia does not necessarily mean that the sufferer has multiple personalities.

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    Mute Matt Beaumont
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    Aug 24th 2016, 5:44 AM

    @James

    In fact it is highly unlikely since a multiple personality disorder is quite rare but what is the point to explain that to the unwashed uneducated and ignorant majority here on the Journal?

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    Mute ChocSaltyBallz
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    Aug 24th 2016, 9:58 AM

    God bless the poor woman her life has been stolen from her

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    Mute sparky
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:16 PM

    Hello ISAAC. How you doin, £€$..take all of those to the shortest plank you can find and jump with them.

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    Mute Paul Hughes
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 10:15 PM

    Sign me up!

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    Mute John Byrne
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    Aug 24th 2016, 3:42 PM

    Thats almost 30yrs of Wrestemania shes missed out on. Her and Brendan should go together

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    Mute Gerard Henry
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    Aug 23rd 2016, 9:55 PM

    I’m going out the front door with Gerry

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